The defendants in the ongoing case Association of Christian Schools International et al. v. Roman Stearns et al. won a legal victory when their motion for partial summary judgment was granted, and the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment was denied, in a March 28, 2008, ruling from Judge S. James Otero.

Senate Bill 561, styled the "Louisiana Academic Freedom Act," was prefiled in the Louisiana Senate by state senator Ben Nevers (D-District 12) on March 21, 2008, and provisionally assigned to the Senate Education Committee, of which Nevers is the chair.

NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott is to receive the UCSF Medal, the highest award of the University of California, San Francisco, on April 23, 2008. In a letter to Scott, the university's chancellor J. Michael Bishop wrote, "The award is offered in recognition of your distinguished advocacy on behalf of science in the public arena.

"Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Separation of Church and State ... but Were Afraid to Ask!" -- a national simulcast sponsored by First Freedom First, a joint project of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation -- is coming to theaters around the country on March 26, 2008.

The recipient of the 2008 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities was Michael Heller, a Polish cosmologist and Catholic priest, currently Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow. John M.